Software of The Week: TVersity free media streaming!

Recently, I was in need of a solution for accessing my media via streaming from my computer. First, I figured out exactly what my needs were.  Simple, I needed away to access media from my desktop computer via my local wireless network.  I would be accessing the files mainly from my iPod Touch and possibly from a laptop or two later down the road.  After a few minutes searching the web, I landed on TVersity.  The download was only 13.5 MB's for the free edition.  TVersity is rather versatile as well; you can easily stream to iPod Touch/iPhones, Nintendo Wii's, PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 systems.  As well as various other wifi enabled devices.

The setup was pretty easy, pretty much double click the setup icon and roll through the wizard.  Once up, I was able to use my iPod Touch's Safari web browser to navigate to my hosts computer's local IP address and I was able to stream a video clip in just a few minutes.  When the program initially accesses a video is transcodes it on the fly, this eliminates the need for having to convert a video file from it's native format to an iPod/Apple ready format.  It does take a few minutes to do the on-the-fly conversion, but it worked very well when it finished.  Likewise, I was able to access the same video file from my laptop as well.

Think of this little gem as setting up your own Video On Demand service within your local network.  The host interface is very well laid out and makes it easy to stream your media files; as well as, subscribe to web content as well.  During setup, the wizard does ask you to enter your YouTube login if you desire to aggregate your favorite YouTube clips too.  The free version looks like it will handle all of my needs for the time being, but should you need to access premium content on sites like Hulu, Sling, and several others; there is a Pro version which costs $39.99 per license.  However, the free version will serve your local content and access some web stuff.  Overall, this is an excellent solution for streaming media.  There are ways you can stream via the internet, but for local streaming setup was a snap.  Likewise, there are other methods of streaming your content, some of which are available for a price from Apple's App Store.  Personally, I like free.  And with the free TVersity and the web browsers I already use, I can achieve my goal.